During a 45-minute appearance in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday, Gill pleaded guilty to defrauding 77 homebuyers and 30 lenders of $31,165,111 from 2000 to 2002.

His trial, delayed numerous times, had been scheduled to start on Monday morning and run for five weeks.

With a guilty plea in hand, Judge Terry Schultes adjourned the matter until May 17, at which time he will set a date for a sentencing hearing.

Gill said nothing during the proceeding, other than to acknowledge that he understood the guilty plea and its implications. There were no family members in court.

I don’t think Gill, who is 58 years old, deserves much credit for his guilty plea.

It was a terribly tangled fraud, which made for a long and complex police investigation. And on four different occasions, Crown counsel Kevin Gillett prepared himself for trial, only to have the case adjourned due to some Gill-inspired delay.

The cost to taxpayers, by any reasonable estimate, is well into six figures. And it is by no means clear that the sentencing hearing will be a simple process. It all depends on whether Gill co-operates in the preparation of an agreed statement of facts. If he limits his co-operation, then the hearing could consume a lot more valuable court time.

Gill perpetrated his crimes through Vancouver lawyer Martin Wirick. Homebuyers entered into agreements to buy properties from Gill-controlled companies or Gill nominees. They sent their money to Wirick, who was acting on Gill’s behalf, on his undertaking to pay off the existing mortgages and deliver clear title. However, instead of using the money as promised, he remitted the funds to Gill, who used them for his own purposes.

In a similar vein, lenders — nearly all well-known financial institutions, most notably Vancouver City Savings Credit Union — forwarded money (on behalf of their borrowing clients) to Wirick on his undertaking to clear off existing mortgages and register their charge in first position on the property. Once again, Wirick failed to discharge his duties and instead diverted the funds to Gill, who used them for his own purposes.

The charges do not appear to capture the entire amount of the fraud. The B.C. Law Society, which ensures the public against lawyer fraud, paid out $38.4 million in claims on account of Wirick’s participation.

Sorting out the claims, many of which were overlapping, took hundreds of man hours. And to finance the payouts, the society had to impose a special assessment on its 10,000 lawyer-members.

If there was one consolation to Wirick’s conduct, it was that he almost immediately went into mitigation mode.

When the scheme was uncovered in May 2002, Wirick resigned from the law society, admitted his part in the scheme and agreed to permanent disbarment. And when the case came to court in June 2009, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in jail.

Many of the victims were new Canadians who suffered the initial shock of learning that prior mortgages on their homes had not been discharged, then the anxiety of living in homes that were laden with debt not of their own making.

Although the law society eventually compensated them, the experience took a heavy emotional toll:

“It was only with tremendous effort that we were able to purchase a new condominium in 2002,” one person stated in a victim impact statement at Wirick’s sentencing

“Since it had been nearly 10 years [since our last holiday], we joined a tour to Disneyland. ... But we received the letter from the court a few days prior to our departure. That night, my wife and I cried in each other’s arms. And the days thereafter were full of sorrow and sadness.”

Another victim described the wrenching psychological impact: “Under constant threat of foreclosure and lawsuit, sleep was impossible and escalating episodes of panic, despair and hours of uncontrollable sobbing alternated with periods of complete numbness.”

While Wirick mercifully expedited the proceeding, Gill not only maintained his innocence, he played a game of musical chairs with his lawyers. Here’s the chronology:

March 2, 2009: Gill makes his first appearance in court with lawyer David Crossin. Pleads not guilty and elects trial by jury. Jury selection set for Sept. 8, 2011.

August 2011: Before jury selection can begin, Gill fires Crossin and hires Ian Donaldson, who needs time to familiarize himself with the case. Trial is rescheduled for Sept. 17, 2012.

September 2012: Days before the trial is set to begin, Gill fires Donaldson and hires Robert Doran. Trial is reset for Jan. 28, 2013.

January 2013: Days before the trial date, Doran withdraws for unexplained “ethical reasons.” Trial is rescheduled for Feb. 11, 2013.

February 2013: Days before the trial is set to begin, Gill retains his fourth lawyer — Jason Mann of Vancouver — who obtains another adjournment. Trial is re-set for May 6. By this time, Judge Schultes is fed up. He appoints Vancouver lawyer Fiona Begg as amicus curiae (friend of the court) with the idea that if Mann parts company with Gill, she will be able to move the case forward.

May 3, 2013: Just three days before the trial is set to begin, Gill pleads guilty.

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